About Us

Herbie Fund: Our past, present and future

Herbie Fund’s mission is to bring children from around the world to The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) for life-saving or life-altering surgeries – surgeries that are not available to them in their home countries because of high costs and lack of medical expertise.

Paul and Gina Godfrey established Herbie Fund at SickKids in 1979 in response to the needs of Herbie Quinones and children like him from around the world. Herbie, a seven-month-old baby from Brooklyn, New York, was born with a rare birth defect that made it difficult for him to breathe while eating. SickKids had pioneered an innovative procedure that could heal him, but Herbie’s family could not afford the flight to Toronto or the surgery. Upon hearing of the family’s plight, Paul and Gina Godfrey initiated a fundraising campaign to bring Herbie to SickKids, creating the foundation for what would become ‘The Herbie Fund’.

More than 657 children from Mongolia, Ecuador, Russia, Kenya, Botswana, Trinidad and 95 other countries have received specialized medical and surgical assistance through the fund. The number of children helped depends entirely on the amount of money donated and unfortunately there are always more applications than the fund can support. Each year, Herbie Fund makes surgeries possible thanks to the generous support of the community and the dedication of clinicians in a wide range of medical divisions at SickKids. The Hospital for Sick Children is proud to share that all of the physicians donate their time and expertise; therefore, they waive their surgical fees. This is their gift to the children and helps to ensure we can extend the Herbie Funds support to more children.

Today, Herbie Quinones is a thriving 32-year-old and thanks to Herbie Fund, hundreds more children are living longer, more productive lives. Together we can help many more children and shape the future of communities all over the world.